ABN Amro 'not in play' after Nordea approach - officials

ABN Amro and its largest shareholder, the Dutch state, are not looking for a buyer and were deeply surprised by an approach by Sweden's Nordea about a merger, an ABN Amro official said on Friday.
Nordea held exploratory talks about a merger as recently as September with Netherlands Financial Investments (NLFI), the Dutch government agency that holds a majority of ABN Amro shares, but the approach was rebuffed, the official said.
"ABN is not in play. We were baffled by the approach by Nordea and referred it to our largest shareholder, the (NLFI), who rejected it. End of story,"... read more

Related news

A merger between Sweden's Nordea (NDA.ST) and Dutch state-owned lender ABN Amro (ABNd.AS) would make "a pretty fine bank," and early talks may continue after a March 2017 election in the Netherlands, Nordea chairman Bjorn Wahlroos said on...

ABN Amro chairman Gerrit Zalm has tried a novel approach to making corporate speeches more interesting. The former Dutch finance minister dressed up as his fictional sister "Priscilla" and regaled the bank's staff with tales of...

The Dutch bank ABN Amro has said its underlying net profit for 2011 was hit by bad debt charges, including 880m euros (£763m, £1.16bn) for Greece. Underlying profits for the year, which strip out the cost of integration and separation of businesses,...

ABN AMRO reported an underlying profit, which excludes separation and integration costs, of 486 million euros in the first quarter, compared with 583 million euros in the same period a year ago.
(Reporting by Gilbert Kreijger)

In a strongly worded judgment, Justice Jayne Jagot said S&P and ABN Amro had deceived 12 local councils that bought the triple-A rated CPDO, or constant proportion debt obligation, notes created by the bank.
The councils were assured the so-called...

The boss of the Dutch lender which brought Royal Bank of Scotland to its knees has shown Stephen Hester and Fred Goodwin a thing or two about glamour.
In a stunt to boost morale among his 23,000 troops, ABN Amro chief Gerrit Zalm transformed into...